The service allows users to download mapping and geographic information direct to their computers.

Landmark will offer a secure and scalable hosted environment as well as storage and retrieval or resource description metadata.

Ordnance Survey is currently using Amazon's cloud services to host its OpenSpace application programming interface (API) but is on the lookout for more suppliers.

OS OpenSpace was launched in 2008, and is a service that helps developers create dynamic mapping applications using the Ordnance Survey information, which can be embedded in external web sites.

"We are also looking to expand our web-based and on-demand mapping services. As such, cloud computing offers a more cost-effective option with greater flexibility and scalability than an in-house solution," explained an Ordnance Survey spokesperson.

John Abbott, OS OpenSpace product manager at Ordnance Survey, added that the agency is also looking to benefit from public sector initiatives around the G-Cloud to support added flexibility and scalability to its OpenSpace API.

"We may well benefit from some of the initiatives going on with the G-Cloud, because we are a public sector entity," he said.

“We’re looking to piggy-back on some of what is going on in government, but we are a little ahead of them in other areas, we're looking to work with cloud services providers for other parts of this project.”

The agency added that it will be launching a commercial version of OpenSpace, called OS OpenSpace pro and a service called OS on demand, aimed at professional users of OS data, in Spring 2011.

Microsoft has made an early version of Windows 10 - its next operating system - available for download. The OS promises better integration and harmonisation across platforms, including mobile and desktop.
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